“…You know I’ve moved to Detroit. It’s wrenching to — I mean, I’ve
lived in New York City for twelve years. I’ve struggled and built a
certain emotional tabernacle here, some kind of tabernacle that
represents my work here. And I’m very proud of the work I did here. I
feel that I did good work in this City. And I love this City, you know.

To leave New York was a very tough thing. But I did it with great
joy, too — you know, like a pioneer. It’s like you have to “Go West!”
I’ve always been a very East Coast girl. I was raised in South Jersey —
Philly, Camden, all the coolest cities. Actually, though, when I was a
teenager I thought that the coolest city wasn’t New York, it was
Detroit — because I was from the Motown, and stuff…”

“…I don’t think it’s cool to shoot yourself up with heroin at 21 years
old and die. I don’t think it’s cool to die at 21, you know.

I don’t want to be dead. I would exist forever. I love life, and I
love being on Earth. I love being an Earthling. I don’t revel in the
death of these people. I don’t love Jimi Hendrix because he died. I
loved what he did when he was most alive, you know, and consulting the
gods on stage. That’s what I loved I don’t have any interest in him
consulting the gods to the death. I couldn’t witness that. I could only
experience that.

I think that what people thought of the New Wave — after it became
the New Wave — got to be such a media and fashion-oriented, imagistic
kind of thing, that the initial reason for it got all distorted.”

“…I know that women, by the basis of our makeup, we perpetuate
civilization, and we have to be optimistic. We have to believe in the
future, or else…since we’re the ones who bear the children of the
future, we have to feel we’re not setting them to light on a volcano.
You don’t want to bear a child and then drop it in a volcano. You want
to bear a child and put him in paradise.”

“…But I don’t have any desire to live on a planet that has no heroes,
and no angels, and no saints, and no art. I’m not ashamed to say it.
It’s not very fashionable to think that way, I suppose, but the more
unfashionable it become, the more angry, and the more strong I become
in my position.”

“…I like to think of those forty days when — I’ve talked to you about
this before. The idea of Jesus. I haven’t completely accepted that
thing in my mind. I’m still, I can’t just…the day that I totally accept
him is going to be a very wonderful day, if it happens, but I have to
think about it still. I’m still exploring that guy. But one of the
stories that I really like is when he, just at this period of time,
went into the desert for forty days and wrestled with the Devil, you
know, when they actually had a verbal and physical battle. Forty days
of someone woodpeckering your spirit, is pretty…”